Calling all warriors! Here is the final guest post in my series on motherhood, loss, and redemption, “Mothering Like a Warrior,” by marriage author and friend Dorothy Littell Greco. To read my own story or motherhood, loss, and redemption, click here. “Mothering Like a Warrior,” by Dorothy Littell Greco I’ve never fired a gun or drawn a sword but I assure you, I mother like a warrior. Our eldest son got married at the tender age of 20. The wedding itself was a glorious celebration of God’s faithfulness and provision. My son’s bride is every bit his match. She is smart, passionate, devoted to God and fiercely loves our son.

I well-know the pain of losing a child. For each of us, loss is different, and yet God’s love is great enough to encompass them all. In this week’s Faith Notes Guest Post, The Weight of Sorrow, author Kim Findlay shares her own story of motherhood, loss and redemption:

I sat on my couch utterly exhausted. I’d been coughing for six days – deep, lung-wracking coughs that snatched at my breath.

As I labored to breathe, a thought swept over me. I was done. I was tired of breathing and wanted it to stop so I could rest. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? It’s not like I had access to something or someone that could breathe for me. Exhausted as I felt, I had to keep going. As tears welled up, I prayed for the strength to continue on and for the pressure to lighten. I prayed for rest.

As we continue to explore motherhood, loss and redemption, this week’s Faith Notes guest post comes from Janna Lynas.:

From the beginning, my heart opened. Then just as quickly, it closed. Once my husband, our 6-year-old adopted son and I left his land of familiar smells and people, textures and sounds, our son closed off his heart. Mine soon followed. It happened so fast, I was caught off guard. I didn’t even realize that I was grieving until months later. I was just trying to survive, and so was he.

Has life gone in a different direction than you originally planned? This week’s Faith Notes guest post on motherhood, loss, and redemption comes from Dr. Amy F. Davis Abdallah: “Losing My Independence.”

At 18, I had plans for my life. I’d meet my lifelong lover in college, stay at home and have babies, work and then we’d travel together in our twilight years. But life didn’t turn out at all as I thought it would. Instead of becoming a wife and mother, I lived briefly in Paraguay, South America, and began a ministry, teaching, and writing career that took me all the way to a Ph.D., a professorship at Nyack College, composing The Book of Womanhood, and a rites of passage ministry to young adults. Eventually, marriage followed.